ENCINITAS — Every day from 10 in the morning to 10 at night, a steady stream of people enter Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream Shop in the Lofts at Moonlight Beach, and leave with sticky hands and faces — and big smiles.
Sometimes, as many as 50 people will be in line for the cones, ice cream sandwiches and other goodies.
The Midwestern ice cream chain’s fourth California location in Encinitas has been a success since the day it opened its doors June 4, 2016. Its popularity has only grown, co-owners Ken Schulenburg and Juliana Ortiz said.
The longtime couple attributes the shop’s popularity to the family-friendly atmosphere they’ve tried to foster.
“Our vision was to create a family-friendly environment, and to create the memories that we had when we were kids going to ice cream shops,” said Schulenburg, who goes by the nickname ‘ScoopDogg.’ “In San Diego, you get businesses that are trying to do that, but many of them are microbreweries, so it’s not totally a family environment, so we wanted to create something for the adults and the kids too.”
But the explosion in popularity hasn’t been all sweet, especially for neighboring tenants in the Lofts, a residential and retail complex on the northwest corner of Coast Highway 101 and Encinitas Boulevard.
Some businesses complain that Handel’s patrons overwhelm the other businesses with requests to use the restroom — Handel’s doesn’t have a public bathroom — and take away precious street parking from their customers while leaving trails of debris as they exit the restaurant.
“We can’t pay for all of their people to wipe their butts with our toilet paper,” said Valerie Buccieri, who owns the Hairloom Salon two doors down from Handel’s. “It’s too much.”
Long lines, booming business
Even on an overcast day, the queue of people waiting for Handel’s Ice Cream grows by the second.
Inside the shop, bright-eyed teens stand behind a counter, taking orders, giving samples of the shop’s 50 different ice cream flavors and ringing up customers.
Outside, some families — from gray-haired grandmothers to tiny infants — congregate around a handful of chairs and tables, while others take their ice cream to go.
For toddlers, the shop gives “baby cones,” tiny sized versions of the big kids variety, for free. They also give cones away to dogs, and feature them on an Instagram page “Dogs of Handel’s.”
There’s an undeniable energy at the store, Schulenburg said, one that’s fueled by a few factors: fresh ingredients, affordable prices and a friendly customer experience.
“San Diego loves fresh, quality ingredients, and I think people are really attracted to it, we hear that our ice cream evokes a lot of memories,” Schulenburg said. “People will say, ‘I haven’t had butter pecan like that in 20 years,’ or ‘You use real Michigan cherries in your black cherry ice cream, I haven’t had that in years.’
“And the price point, it’s very unique today that a family of five can come to Handel’s and all get something for $20,” Schulenburg said.
Schulenburg said he also takes pride in hiring local teens to man the counters. For many, it’s their first job.
And as the business has boomed, so has the hiring. The first summer, Ortiz and Schulenburg said they hired around 15 kids. This summer, they’ve hired 50 kids.
Along the way, the shop was recently named the best ice cream parlor in San Diego County in an annual contest hosted by San Diego Magazine.
Ortiz said the honor meant a lot because those contests are often dominated by San Diego-based businesses.
“It’s cool because we are representing our area,” said Ortiz, who lives with Schulenburg in Leucadia.
Good neighbors?
As the line picks up outside of Handel’s, so does the frustration inside of Hairloom Salon, where a sign outside of the shop gives an indication of the primary cause of friction between the two businesses.
“They don’t have a public bathroom, and it’s kind of ridiculous,” Buccieri said. “Every business in the plaza has put up signs telling their customers to not use their bathrooms.”
Buccieri said that people have yelled and cursed at them for not letting them use the bathroom, and a few have even urinated in the underground parking structure.
She said that on the busiest days, as many as 100 Handel’s customers will stick their head in asking to use their restroom.
“It gets disruptive to business,” she said.
Other businesses throughout the retail portion of the loft, including a pizza parlor, clothing store, a tanning salon and a popular coffee shop, concurred that Handel’s customers can sometimes be overwhelming.
Their customers can’t find street parking along Coast Highway 101. Business owners say they frequently find wrappers, cones and other debris from patrons heading back to their cars.
“The bathroom is the biggest issue, and the ice cream gets everywhere,” said Nicole Richards, who owns a boutique clothing store in the center. “They don’t shop at the other stores; they’re just going to the coffee shop or for ice cream.”
Schulenburg said shop’s configuration — a sea of ice cream vats stand between the rear restrooms and the front counter — makes it impossible to open the space’s two bathrooms to the public. The state health code prohibits people walking through areas where food is prepared.
Additionally, Schulenburg said, they have a dairy manufacturing license that also prohibits people walking through clean rooms or manufacturing areas, making the bathrooms unavailable.
City planner Kerry Kusiak confirmed that the city’s building code wouldn’t allow public access to the bathrooms because of the food preparation areas blocking it.
Kusiak also said there are no city requirements that businesses have public restrooms, even restaurants.
The city, he added, hasn’t received any complaints about Handel’s lack of public restrooms.
When asked if the shop’s space could be reconfigured to make a bathroom available, Schulenburg said the space is too constrained to make it possible.
Schulenburg said they try to be good neighbors to the surrounding businesses. He regularly power washes the deck areas, which are considered common-use areas. They bring on additional employees during peak times not only to accommodate the large lines but also to clean up debris outside the shop.
“When I hear people say we’re bad neighbors, and I know that we’re trying to build something that brings families together, it’s kind of hurtful,” Schulenburg said. “I don’t think us not having a bathroom makes us bad neighbors.”
But more importantly, he said, they bring foot traffic to a center that once couldn’t keep tenants for longer than a few months at a time.
“I spent my whole life in retail, and retailers spend billions to try to drive foot traffic,” he said. “We drive that traffic and we also recommend our neighbors to our customers. It’s up to them to capture that traffic and turn the situation with the long lines from a ‘glass half empty’ to a ‘glass half full’ scenario.
“You have happy people waiting in line and are in large part enthusiastic to do business with you, you have to use that to your advantage,” Schulenburg said.
17 comments
i remember when they opened the kripsy kreme satellite store off el camino, they had a huuuugge ta-do red ribbon ceremony with the mayor etc…. the height of culture in encinitas, it was gone in a few months….
What kind of small business complains when there is too MUCH pedestrian traffic around them? Pizza and Ice cream are like Peanut Butter and Jelly. If you have not been able to translate this in to business: Shame on YOU. How terrible must your pizza ( or marketing) be that people are only using your bathroom and leaving? Something is wrong here. Are you not capturing the crowds with specials or discount cards? Do you have someone out front handing out small free samples? Are there delivery menus out front from people to look at while they wait for ice cream? Do you go outside as the owner and speak with people waiting? Is your decor interesting and family friendly to capture the tons of kids and families there? Is it sterile and stuffy and lacks imagination? Do you have a bench for people to sit on and read your menu? Can they not smell the sweet aroma of your amazing pizza while they wait in line? Really – you are complaining about $50 monthly toilet paper costs because HUNDREDS of people are coming in to YOUR establishment and using your restroom? Check your menu, check your quality control, look at your YELP reviews? Perhaps you have to – gasp – MODIFY your business to take advantage of this great “problem” of overflowing people…or you “can stick to your guns” and go down in “creamy flames”…Most small businesses DREAM of having your problem, but you cant figure it out. 50% of small businesses fail in the first year, and this type of thinking is the reason why; How ridiculous!! I hope YOU figure it out before it’s too late.
Common Sense obviously lacks same. Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt. Now as soon as you put a name to your alias, we’ll know who the fool is.
Lowell, you are terribly illogical on multiple levels, and your thinking is overly simplistic.
What do you expect from a company based in Ohio?
they gave us Trump…
“We can’t pay for all of their people to wipe their butts with our toilet paper,” said Valerie Buccieri, who owns the Hairloom Salon two doors down from Handel’s. “It’s too much.” She seems like a real class act…
‘
Can I come use the bathroom at your house whenever I like?
A simple solution would be to direct people to the public bathrooms at Moonlight Beach which are about a block away. There is no need to get nasty about it. Walking to the beach with amazingly delicious ice cream — it’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it ! What a great town Encinitas is that this “problem” is front page news — some places have real problems…
It would be like your neighbor coming over to use your bathroom everyday. “Hey, I just wanted to come over and say hi! I’m just trying to be friendly and you’re being hurtful.” !I am glad I don’t have a retail shop in that plaza. I highly doubt families going out for n ice cream cone are looking for a quick tan or haircut while in line. The ice cream is goid but it’s ridiculous the city doesn’t mandate a bathroom for a business that serves hundreds of customers daily.
um… i don’t want to be silly, but Port-A-Potty….
Those neighboring businesses that are “negatively impacted” by Handel’s success need to band together and hire thugs to chase away the unruly mob. Wherever the line exceeds Handel’s ability to serve customers, the thugs would come in and say in a loud voice “By order of ISO-9000, this establishment has exceeded its process capability and all excess prospective customers must now disperse!”.
Many centuries ago, this was known as “reading them the Riot Act”.
“People who can`t stand to see the success of others will never experience their own.” I’ve always been amazed to see the lines of people at this ice cream store, since the retail complex it’s in, is far from ideal for attracting foot traffic. The building sits off by itself, and the stores are not at street level. I honestly thought that any retail business in this location that relied on foot traffic would not thrive. These negative shop owners should consider themselves lucky that they have the opportunity to market to this continuous flow of foot traffic. If they are unable to do that they lack drive or marketing skills, or perhaps their business just sucks. “The thermometer of success is merely the jealousy of the malcontents.”
Deal with it . . .
Welcome to mixed-use development. And this is what the current soon-to-be EX-Mayor of Carlsbad wants OUR downtown to look like. Can’t wait to avoid it. I can have ice cream at home. Good luck to Encinitas. Another downtown I used to enjoy but now stay away from.
Really, this is your argument against mixed-use development? Lame and weak, looks like one tenant with a complaint about a successful business, let’s find a solution.
Central Business District mixed use living is not for everyone. It thrives on social activity, culture and art. If you can’t enjoy the environment don’t move there.
Encinitas like more and more cities, are putting the squeeze on cars, encouraging bicyclists and very happy to have trucks doing business. Parking? No, that’s the squeeze on the middle class and all private vehicles. They want more tax revenues at any expense to the quality of life or the will of the citizens. More tourist, more in country immigrant, more out of country immigrants, and as much births as possible – all in the name of families and business interests (but not the low income shops). The sweet little seaside town is gone and many have moved away for many reasons. Think La Jolla, Malibu, Laguna Beach, and for traffic (and cost of living) that would be the Bay Area.
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